Far be it from me to quibble with one of my intellectual heroes, but I worry that even Thomas Sowell has let the blanket coverage of the Utah mine disaster get to him in his article today. In the midst of making some predictably excellent points about the obstructiveness of environmentalists to developing alternative sources of power, he poses an indirect rhetorical question,

Ask the families of the trapped miners if they think mining is safe.

I’d rather consult data than ask opinions. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ data on occupational fatalities for 2006, 37 mining extraction workers died in accidents last year. For comparison, 25 top executives died in on-the-job incidents last year. As I pointed out in my article on the subject during the last 24-hour-news mining accident extravaganza, mine fatality rates are at historic lows, around 3-4 deaths per 10,000 employees. Mining is indeed an inherently dangerous occupation, but it’s about as safe as it can be at the moment. As Sowell himself says, “nothing is categorically “safe.”” I argue the same in that article, with reference to Tommy Armstrong, the pitman’s poet, in words written 1882.